Elizabeth Brown's Archive

According to Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model there are five environmental systems in which a person lives and develops. They are the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem and choronosystem. The microsystem is the setting in which an individual lives and develops, or immediate environment (Bryant, 2001). Examples of a microsystem would be the family, school, or peer group. Microsystems do interact with each other and influence each other, and this point of interaction is called the mesosystem. More »

Elizabeth Brown's Comment Archive

One of my favorite experiences this semester was involving a mesosystem that linked at least four of my exosystems. Tyson and Dr Goff were a part of this as well, when we sat on a panel at a college group to talk about sexuality. It was so cool to see so many of my worlds collide: undergrad, gradschool, church, and old friends. I had an existing link with each person in the room, like the hub of a wheel. This for me was a perfect illustration of a mesosystem.
Now, I don’t know that I can say how this mesosystem impacted others, but I very distinctly felt its impact on me. I felt very energized and focused. I could see all the parts of my life coming together to bring me where I am now and where I am wanting to go…equifinality.

I have realized that in my relationships I am pretty possessively warm. :-) I get stuck on thinking I know what they need to do to feel better/succeed/whatever. I have especially noticed this in how I relate to my sister. Throughout this semester and with her living with us, I’ve really tried to change the way I talk with her because she does come to me for advice or counsel. I’ve focused more on affirming her abilities to make decisions and encouraging her to look ask herself what she should do. I suppose with that big sister tendency, I need to watch out for that with clients who willingly want someone to tell them what to do, who want someone to take over so they don’t have to. I’ve definitely learned a lot about this through the semester and am glad I can see my personal relationships changing in this way.

Growing up, the most important exosystems in my life that still have great meaning for me was my dance studio I was at for four years and also the ranch I would ride horses at every weekend. I did a lot of growing up in both of those arenas and feel like the people (and animals) had a huge impact on me and who I am today. These two worlds never intersected, and were two completely different sets of people. These still are important things for me. One impact that it has for my family system today is the understanding for my husband to know that one day, we will have a horse in our family system. :-)
But seriously, I feel like experiences from both of those groups became part of who I am today, and perhaps I wouldn’t be who I am today without them.

I have started recognizing resistance in my own conversations with people. It is so weird when you start seeing all of your relationships differently. I can feel almost before I say it if I’ve jumped the gun by asking a question and the timing is off. It seems so obvious that it’s not just resistance on the part of the person I’m talking to, but also on the part of me being in tune or empathizing with the person I’m talking to.
I can see that in therapy that timing and pacing would have a huge role in fostering resistance or encouraging cooperation. I like what you have to say Tommy about letting the client lead and we’ll just help along the way.

I’ve known couples who in my eyes seem to fit this pattern, but they seem very happy. I assume that the key to this being a case of under/overfunctioning has to do with each member’s perception if their funcionality and potential. If one partner seems to micromanage every aspect of their life and the other seems fine to sit back and let them, is this over/underfunctioning even if they are content with the setup?